La Paz.- The general Juan Jose Zunigathe former military chief who this week led a failed attempt to coup d’état in Boliviasaid that “at some point the truth will be known” about those events when he was transferred on Saturday to a high-security prison on the outskirts of La Paz.
“The rest are innocent, there are innocent people,” Zúñiga managed to tell the press in an apparent reference to the others. 21 arrested, while he was introduced into a vehicle in the middle of a strong police force. The former army commander was handcuffed and guarded by two police officers.
The maximum security prison of Chonchocoro, where Zúñiga was taken, is located about 50 minutes by road from La Paz in the neighboring city of El Alto. The governor of Santa Cruz and opposition leader Luis Fernando Camacho has also been preventively detained there for a year and a half for the political crisis of 2019 that precipitated the resignation of then-President Evo Morales.
Zúñiga is being investigated for armed uprising and terrorism along with former Navy commander Vice Admiral Juan Arnez and the former commander of a mechanized brigade of the army, Colonel Edison Irahola. These last two were also transferred to the same prison in handcuffs and escorted by police.
Another 14 of the 21 detainees appeared on Saturday before a judge of precautionary measures, who could also order preventive prison for them while they are investigated. The hearing was held virtually for security reasons. They are all processes for armed uprising and terrorism.
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Lawyer Alexis Fuentes, who defends one of the detainees, questioned the decision of the prosecution to prosecute all the detainees for the same crime. “This is illogical, there is no individualization of the crimes of each of the defendants,” he complained.
Outside the police station, around fifty supporters of President Luis Arce were shouting “Jail for Zúñiga!”. Nearby were the relatives of the 21 people arrested for the military uprising, including Zúñiga’s wife, Graciela Arancibia.
“We are being harassed, stalked and it is unfair. I am the mother of a six-year-old child and I ask for respect,” the woman told the panel between sobs.
The Minister of Government, Eduardo del Castillosupervised Zúñiga’s transfer.
Given the claims of some arrested people who claim to have followed orders, del Castillo said that it is the norm in the armed forces that “orders are given in writing.”
“There are soldiers who were insubordinate to Zúñiga and will be witnesses. “We are investigating,” he added.
President Arce assured The Associated Press the day before that the goal of the coup plotters was to overthrow him and put Zúñiga, the former commander who was a close collaborator of the president since 2022 when he took office, in power.
Opponents of President Arce, including the former president himself Evo Morales and leaders of civic organizations have questioned the government’s version and say that it was a self-coup based on statements made by Zúñiga, who, upon being arrested, said that it was the president who asked him to plan a military action to boost his popularity.
The president has denied this accusation. “Of course I reject this version,” he said.
Arce faces a growing climate of social unrest due to the deterioration of the economy and the rise in the cost of living. Disputes with Morales over the leadership of the ruling Movement towards Socialism (MAS) have caused the president to lose political strength.
Read also The memes left by the attempted coup d’état in Bolivia
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